There are known a number of processes for aligning and bonding polymers to mating plates where, for example, two cut sheets with specific patterns encompass the mating plate. The cut sheets can then be independently and mechanically aligned within an assembly to perform specific functions. However, disadvantages with these processes are that proper alignments are dependent on factors, such as the materials, like polymers selected, humidity conditions, design features, and rigidity of the parts, which renders part-to-part alignment increasingly difficult and not achievable in some instances. Also, costly automated optical alignment equipment and humidity/temperature control devices are often not sufficient to obtain an acceptable alignment of, for example, substantially all the channels present in ink jet heads. Misaligned areas, such as ink channels, cause ink droplets to eject at different angles resulting in images on a printed surface to be of a poor or unacceptable quality. Additionally, because of the misalignment of the areas and openings between a mating member and the layers coated thereon, there is a decrease in the amount of material being ejected, and eventually the apparatus in which these mating members are utilized can be rendered inoperative, and where the areas, channels, or apertures become plugged. Further, with these processes there can result internal ink leaking and color mixing, and there can be formed obstructed fluidic paths to and from the print head.
In some known thermal and piezo driven inkjet print heads, the aperture layer or layers may be a polymer layer in which apertures are formed using laser ablation. The advantages of using a polymer layer include low cost and the ability to taper or otherwise shape the apertures. Using a polymer layer can present challenges to print head design in that the outlet plate is generally prepared from a metal layer, such as stainless steel, and where the metal layer is etched with openings that fluidly couple the apertures in the polymer aperture plate to a pressure chamber in a body layer once the print head assembly is completed. Since the apertures in the polymer aperture plate are smaller than the openings in the outlet plate, solid portions of the polymer aperture plate extend over the openings in the outlet plate. Thus, the attendant lack of support for these portions as the metallic outlet plate is pressed against the polymer aperture plate produces uneven pressure on the polymer aperture plate and causes the polymer aperture plate to warp and form dimples resulting in the warped apertures ejecting droplets at different angles, and different shapes thereby reducing print quality.
The lack of flatness in the aperture plate or layer arising from the application of uneven pressure to polymer layers is known, and where there is cut extra trenches in a silicon die mounting material to produce unsupported areas of the aperture plate that are symmetrical with regard to the apertures in the polymer aperture layer. These symmetrical unsupported areas help reduce errors in apertures caused by the polymer layer warping. While this method attempts to reduce the negative effects caused by warped channels and nozzles, there is the unresolved problem that the polymer aperture plate is being warped during the print head fabrication process.
Additionally, a problem with print heads is that the channels are of a small size of area and the non-registration or non-alignment of one orifice to another creates objectionable print quality, therefore orifices need to be properly assembled, and where their dimensions thereof are substantially constant over extended time periods with variations in temperature. Further, the use of several different materials in the preparation of an ink jet print head, especially the assembly of page-wide print heads, is that polymers selected have differing coefficient of thermal expansions which leads to unacceptable registration or non-aligning of channels with temperature changes.
Drop on demand inkjet technology has been employed in commercial products such as printers, plotters, and facsimile machines. Generally, an inkjet image is formed by the selective activation of inkjets within a print head to eject ink onto an ink receiving member. For example, an ink receiving member rotates opposite a print head assembly as the inkjets in the print head are selectively activated. The ink receiving member may be an intermediate image member, such as an image drum or belt, or a print medium, such as paper. An image formed on an intermediate image member is subsequently transferred to a print medium, such as a sheet of paper.
In current inkjet printers of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,863, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, and in which the mating plates or laminated layers illustrated herein can be incorporated, an inkjet jet stack can contain from 16 to 20 gold-plated stainless steel plates that are brazed together. Cavities etched into each plate form channels and passageways for containment of ink for each individual jet. Larger cavities align to form larger passageways that run the length of the jet stack. These larger passageways are ink manifolds arranged to supply ink to individual jets for each color of ink. Up to eight of these plates can be used to create the manifolds to ensure a large enough cross-section to avoid ink starvation of the individual jets when writing solid colors while retaining the manifold internal to the jet stack.
To increase printing speed, the number of jets may be increased within a jet stack and firing frequency of the jets may be increased. Increasing the number of jets and firing frequency using the above-described ink manifold design would require increasing the size of the ink manifold which, in turn, means using more plates to achieve a large enough cross-section. Also, individual gold-plated stainless steel plates are expensive, so increasing the number of plates quickly increases the cost of the jet stack.
Typically there are four ink colors used within a jet stack. The ink jets for each color are widely distributed across the face of the jet stack. The passageways from each ink manifold follow paths to the widely distributed individual jets and cross above and below each other, which adds to the height of the jet stack requiring more plates. This geometry necessary within the stack also makes the passageways from the manifolds to the individual jets relatively long and circuitous, which adds drag to the ink flow limiting the mass throughput of ink to the individual jets.
There is a need for lamination processes that substantially avoid or minimize the disadvantages of a number of known processes.
Further, there is a need for ink jet mating laminates that can be prepared by economical processes.
Also, there is a need for processes where there is achieved the alignment of supporting substrate openings and a plurality, such as two polymer layers with openings, and where the polymer layers enclose the supporting substrate situated there between.
Another need resides in the provision of the laser ablation processes that generate openings in a laminate, and where the laminate can be selected for a number of different uses, such as in ink jet print heads, that can be incorporated into ink jet systems.
Yet another need resides in processes that generate consistent and acceptable ink jet laminates where the channels or openings therein are in alignment with the channels present in the polymer layers that encompass the supporting substrate.
Moreover, there is a need for ink jet print heads where the ink channels eject ink in a preselected continuous manner that results in images of acceptable resolution, and where the ink and the image are robust or possess robustness.
There is also a need for mating devices and plates that can be economically prepared with minimal or substantially no contamination in a manner that allows the full alignment of each of the channels present in the plate and in the polymer or polymers present on each side of the plate.
Additionally, there is a need for laminated plates or layers where the polymers on each side of the plates remain attached to the plates for extended periods of time.
These and other needs are achievable in embodiments with the mating plates and components thereof disclosed herein.